Ivy League Sports

As the country was beginning to rise from the knockout punch delivered by the Great Depression, the professional sports teams in Philadelphia were landing another haymaker on the city’s morale.

The Phillies were in the midst of a horrific quarter century. From 1921 to 1945, that team produced one winning season and 12 100-loss campaigns (in a 154-game schedule no less).

The A’s, the pride of the city just years before, had sold off their best players and begun a nine-year stretch in which the team lost an average of 98 games annually.

The Eagles became an NFL franchise in 1933 and produced 23 victories in 109 games in their first 10 years.

And the summer of 1935 was no different. In August, both the A’s and the Phillies showed a little promise, hanging within 10 games of .500. But the summer swoon hit and the two teams combined to lose 70 of their last 100 games.

It was that sweltering summer, on July 23, when Irvin Roberson was born in Philadelphia, the last of six children. He would ultimately become one of the greatest, most versatile athletes the city ever produced.

And somewhere at a young age, he became known as Bo and no one called him Irvin. Bo was a gifted child, both academically and athletically, and he took both very seriously.

By his sophomore year of 1950-51, at John Bartram High in West Philadelphia, he was attracting city-wide attention for his athletic exploits. He was a threat to win Public League titles in both the 100-yard dash and the long jump and was clearly a star of the future in both basketball and football.

As a junior, his legend began to grow. That year he was the best long jumper in the city, earning the Public League title with a leap of 22-0 1/2. He also had a second-place finish in the League’s 100-yard dash, his first loss of the season in either event. He was also named to the All-Scholastic Team for his successes on the track as well as the hardwood.

Roberson’s senior year, 1952-53, remains one of the most amazing in the history of Philadelphia scholastic sport. He kicked off the fall by being voted as the most outstanding football player in the area. He had turned a moribund Bartram program into a winner and had become an unstoppable force.

As fall gave way to winter, the 6-foot-1 Roberson became a first-team All-City basketball player, joining future Hall of Famers Guy Rodgers and Wilt Chamberlain. As the season drew to conclusion, Roberson took over. It started in a quarterfinal victory of the Public League Championship when he scored 26 points in a come-from-behind victory over West Philadelphia.

With that victory, Bartram found itself in the semifinal at The Palestra, facing Northeast High and its star Guy Rodgers. The winner would square off with Overbrook High and super sophomore Wilt Chamberlain for the league title. As it turned out, Rodgers was too much to handle, but Roberson scored 22 points himself in the loss.

As the Spring of 1953 rolled around, Roberson switched back to the track and stepped up his level of performance. Again, he was the league’s long jump champ, this time clearing a meet record 22-9 3/4 before churning up the sand. He also won the 100-yard dash with a 9.7-second clocking. One of the athletes whom he beat in both events was Overbrook’s Ira Davis, who would compete in three Olympics.

The long jump-100 double is a rare one in the Philly Public League. In fact, it took 47 years for someone to match that feat.

In an amazing time for Philadelphia area high school athletics, Roberson was selected as the all-sport outstanding athlete following the 1952-53 academic year.

Sonny Hill is a well-known figure in Philadelphia and beyond. He formed the famed Sonny Hill League, a summer basketball program at Temple University, and has been a part of the Philadelphia sporting scene for more than 50 years.

A few years younger than Roberson, Hill was not close to him, but certainly gives him a lofty place in the Philadelphia sporting history.

“Bo Roberson belongs in the conversation with any athlete from the City of Philadelphia because he was so successful in three arenas,” said Hill. “Obviously Wilt Chamberlain was a great athlete, but his resume was that of two sports. Add in that Bo Roberson was a standout student and he becomes a story that needs to be told.”

Roberson was inducted into the Bartram High Hall of Fame in 1974 and, ultimately, the State of Pennsylvania Hall of Fame in 1989.

The erudite Roberson had a choice to make for his future. He likely had a number of opportunities for college, given his athletic stature. But he opted for another year to decide by enrolling in the Wyoming Seminary Preparatory School in the Poconos town of Kingston, Pa.

Again, he stood out athletically and academically. He was so good athletically at Wyoming Prep, he was named to the school’s Hall of Fame in 1974 as well. And his academic training also prepared him for the rigors of the Ivy League education he would receive at Cornell University.

Being in the Poconos for prep school also gave the Philadelphian a sense of what life might be like in Ithaca, away from the big city.